The wife and children of Chen Guangcheng, the blind dissident who escaped an
extra-judicial house arrest last month, have been illegally stripped of
their freedom as they await travel documents that would let them leave
China.

In an interview with The Times as he began his second week as an
inpatient at a Beijing hospital, Mr Chen described a disturbing array of
extra-judicial measures imposed on his immediate and extended family and
said that his two young children were only allowed to leave the hospital
building for 30 minutes in the morning and afternoon.